"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths." Northwoods is a ministry dedicated to refreshing Christians and challenging them to search for the truth in Christianity, politics, sociology, and science

"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life"

Father God, thank you for the love of the truth you have given me. Please bless me with the wisdom, knowledge and discernment needed to always present the truth in an attitude of grace and love. Use this blog and Northwoods Ministries for your glory. Help us all to read and to study Your Word without preconceived notions, but rather, let scripture interpret scripture in the presence of the Holy Spirit. All praise to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Please note: All my writings and comments appear in bold italics in this colour

Friday, October 18, 2013

The Unholy Alliance that's Destroying America

Dylan Ratigan is a New York Times best-selling author and former host of MSNBC's The Dylan Ratigan Show. The show was the highest-rated non-prime time show on the network, aimed at critiquing what Ratigan sees as an unholy alliance between big business and government.I'm delighted to find someone credible who agrees with my observation that big business is controlling government. Though his solutions are God-less, they are still promising and probably very necessary. This from his website.

"We do not have a debt crisis!

We have a crisis in our dependence on two corrupted political parties, each paid to perpetuate a mass extraction on behalf of those that finance them in unique and sordid ways.

America has a crisis in the way that our government has institutionalized extractive banking, trade, tax, energy, education, and health systems from coast-to-coast. It is so apparent that it was the underlying premise for my book “Greedy Bastards.”

The political parties, their methods and those who finance them are the root of the problem. And our government perpetuates these systems because our political “leaders” are directly dependent on the few economic beneficiaries of these grossly misaligned systems.

What is commonly referred to as debt is, in reality, what we must pay for the extraction in health or banking or the tax code. This is merely a symptom of the extraction.

As I described in “Greedy Bastards,” we are surrounded by unprecedented new methods all made unique by an ability to provide abundance of health or learning or other core resources for relative pennies. Look no further than people like Sal Kahn in education, or Jeffrey Brenner in health care, or Colin Archipley and his hydroponic farming methods.

The consolidated resources of political parties was likely necessary in 1890, when broad communication was nearly impossible for any given candidate.

But today, what is to stop five or ten political aspirants from running in open primaries using transparent financing, absent any political party whatsoever? What indeed, other than blatant stonewalling and subterfuge by the men and women of our two dominant parties who have established a ruling class in a nation that certainly doesn't want one and absolutely doesn't need one?

Until reforms like transparent financing and open primaries are implemented, however, we are left with two choices. One is to wallow in the tragedy of the dysfunction, which too many of us are selecting. Two, we can choose to embrace the amazing methods blossoming around us outside of the mainstream system.These methods hold the promise of converting buildings to become energy positive batteries in a distributed power grid. Or to supply abundant food with the absolute minimum amount of water. Or widespread education for pennies.

I have always believed that the size of the problem equals the size of the opportunity. And considering the obvious size of the problem presented by opaque election financing and extractive core systems, massive opportunities for reform surely surround us.

For me, finding those opportunities begins with deciding what I can do each day to move the ball forward. Setting my intent to shape what is directly in front of me creates the ability to reject political parties altogether. And until I hear discussion of open primaries and transparent election finance, I will remain deaf to the siren’s call of political party-bound screeds luring our nation toward dangerous straits."